


Teen Wolf, Season 3, Episode 4, Unleashed

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e04 Unleashed, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 06:48:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16279700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 3, Episode 4, Unleashed

Open to Deaton and Scott giving a dog a shot. Nearby, his owner, Kyle, anxiously hovers. After the shot, playing with the dog, Scott compliments his name, Bullet.

Explaining he’s from a military family, Kyle reveals he has two other male dogs named Beretta and Trigger.

Bullet is submissive towards Scott, and Kyle makes a comment about him knowing who the alpha is. Scott and Deaton side-eye him, but realising it’s likely an innocent comment, Scott quickly forces a chuckle.

Outside, Bullet refuses to get in the car, and this all could have been avoided if Kyle had just picked him up. Instead, Bullet runs away.

Inside, Deaton and Scott find out Bullet was poisoned with mistletoe, and it’s established said substance is also bad for werewolves.

Back outside, Kyle thinks Bullet’s underneath a dumpster, but he’s bitten by whatever is actually underneath. He hears a creepy, “Closer. Come closer,” and he does.

To be fair, he might have been literally entranced. I don’t think most people operating on full capacity would obey a creepy voice from underneath a dumpster, especially after they’ve been bitten.

Scott has come outside, and Bullet runs back to him.

Meanwhile, at school, Jennifer thinks something is chasing her in the hallway. Getting to her classroom, she finds Derek, and grabbing a ruler pointer, she shows fear.

Calm and vaguely amused, he says he just wanted to check on her.

Physically, she’s fine, but she admits to having emotional problems even before all this happened.

She mentions she’s teaching The Crucible. Derek nicely teases her with the suggestion she can explain about it being an allegory for McCarthyism.

Now, the next part would have worked if different acting/directorial choices and a better line reading had been employed, but unfortunately, it doesn’t.

Obviously, the character knows exactly what he’s talking about, and I’d be extremely surprised if her actress didn’t, too. Her line asking if this is his subtle way of suggesting she not say anything is meant to show she’s in no mood for such teasing. However, the way it comes across is her not quite understanding/comprehending.

He starts to leave, and she asks his name. “Derek.”

“Jennifer,” she calls after him.

In the boy’s locker room, Stiles is talking loudly enough about the supernatural for the person at the locker beside him to hear him. Freaking out about his virginity and wondering if Kyle was a virgin, he goes on a loud rant about how he needs to have sex right now.

Closing his locker right besides Stiles’s, Danny volunteers himself.

One cool thing O’Brien did is ad-lib some of this scene, and whatever intentions he had of Stiles being completely straight, I enjoyed the acting in this scene.

Stiles is wary, but it’s not the fact Danny is another boy, it’s because he suspects Danny is teasing him. Incidentally, this is spot on, because, Danny totally is.

Stiles does not appreciate this.

The joke isn’t a gay boy is hitting on a straight boy. The humour derives from the fact Stiles is a dork who sometimes irritates Danny. In response, Danny good-naturedly teases him. Even if Danny had been serious and Stiles is completely straight, this show is the type, if the scene was meant to be comedic, would have the humour come from Stiles being flattered and awkward in trying to gently let Danny down.

Isaac comes into the locker room, and Coach tells everyone they’re running cross-country in order to stay in shape during the off-season.

In certain scenes during this episode, Isaac is wearing a stripped jacket, and I interpret this to be foreshadowing the end of the episode.

Outside, Isaac is kneeling down, and the twins flank him. Everyone starts running, and Scott grabs Isaac before he can.

Wrenching away, Isaac gives chase, and the twins corner him. Apparently the Carver twins got their own characters mixed up during this scene, but I never would have known if not for someone who can actually tell the two apart pointing this out.

Before they can hurt him, Scott appears. Everyone is growly, and then, there’s a scream.

The foursome runs to find the rest of the class surrounding a Kyle. Bullet’s collar is wrapped around his neck. The twins look at one another. Somehow, Sheriff S and Deputy Graeme are already there, and they try to get everyone to disperse. I wish hard for Coach to be smacked when he says the kid is probably homeless.

The death of a homeless person or a prostitute or [insert poor/disabled/non-binary/etc.] person is just as terrible as the death of someone who has been deemed socially acceptable.

Scott doesn’t help by informing the coach Kyle is a senior.

Obviously, Kyle wasn’t homeless, but the unfortunate truth is there are homeless kids in the world. Some schools will bend over backwards to try to make sure they can attend. I’m not sure Beacon Hills High would be one of them.

Stiles points out the similarities to the other victims to his dad, and Sheriff S begs him to get back to school.

Then, Kyle’s girlfriend, Ashley, comes running. Screaming, she tries to get to him, and Deputy Graeme is gentle in using her strength to keep Ashely back.

Stiles, Isaac, and Scott walk away, and the former two both try to get Scott on their side. He acknowledges they both have good points. Stiles insists it wasn’t the twins, and Isaac insists it was.

Further declaring he doesn’t care, Isaac states they killed both Kyle and Braeden.

In a deleted scene, the twins did taunt Isaac about how they killed Braeden, but since it wasn’t part of the finished product and Isaac doesn’t mention how he came to this conclusion, him believing Braeden is dead comes out of nowhere. As of two episodes ago, Isaac showed no concern for her, only fondness.

I’m not saying this didn’t happen, because, at one point, there were plans for him to have genuine reason to believe her dead, but it’d make more sense if he brought up the fact, at least, one of the alphas undeniably killed Erica. It’d make more sense for him to bring up the fact they held Boyd hostage for four months. It’d make more sense for him to bring up Derek’s sister was held hostage by them.

Without their taunt, all he knows is Braeden is missing. If something else made him think she might be dead from Chaos Rising to here, I wish the show had shown it.

Announcing he’s going to kill them, he bounces.

At Derek’s loft, Cora is pushing herself in training, and Derek is trying to get her to sit down so that she actually start recuperating from her injuries.

For anyone who doesn’t wish to read my thoughts about Cora, press ctrl+f and type ‘moving on’ minus the quotation marks.

Adelaide Kane is a talent actress, but in my view, one of the biggest mistakes the show made was Cora. Since it never really went anywhere, there was no need.

Peter survived the fire, and there have been hints other Hales might have survived. There didn’t need to be a long-lost sister appearing to point out there’s a possibility others might have, too.

Boyd could have been alone in the vault, or he could have been with some random werewolf. There could have been a brief scene of the other one being dropped off with their pack/family/a homeless shelter after the moon-rage wore off, but Boyd running around feral would have been enough of a threat.

Derek losing his alpha spark could have happened with Isaac. It was originally going to happen with Erica, and so, him sacrificing it for someone who’s blood family wasn’t considered a requirement.

There are certain characters I suspect Scott might have made up, but I don’t think Cora is among them.

Scott has no interest in Cora, but I don’t buy Derek, Stiles, Isaac, Boyd, and even the Argents wouldn’t. There are ways to flesh out a character and integrate them that the show’s biggest narrator doesn’t have an interest in, but the show refused to do this with Cora.

If they had, I wouldn’t have complaints, but it’s obvious, for whatever reason, they thought they needed another female character to fulfil some of Erica’s role, specifically, the loss of Derek’s alpha status. They didn’t, and if they weren’t going to do more than this, they shouldn’t have included it.

I understand Erica’s story was more-or-less done when her actress left. They didn’t want to Other Darrin her, and even if Erica had gotten free without Boyd, she never would have just up and ran. She would have been trying her hardest to extract him next. The only other options were to have Boyd talking about the alphas removing her, thus, leaving her status in question, or have a brief scene of Erica blowing town after they were both rescued with possibly a stunt double running around as feral Erica. If Golightly didn’t have the time for or didn’t agree with the latter happening, I certainly wouldn’t advocate for the show to try to force it.

The show should have just let it completely end rather than bringing in a different character to finish it. Again, Isaac could have been the person Derek sacrificed his alpha-hood for. If not for Walls leaving, too, Boyd was another option.

Moving on, Cora expresses her disappointment in him not living up to her expectations.

Then, the loft’s alarm blares, and Ennis and Kali invade. Ennis gets Cora in a chokehold, and Kali sticks a pipe through Derek.

Deucalion comes in.

Meanwhile, in French class, Morrell is teaching, and Allison is asleep. Morrell tries to get her to wake up, and Allison is woken up by Victoria yelling at her.

Did Morrelll cause this, is this a sign of Allison still hasn’t fully mentally recovered from the abuse and other trauma she was subjected to, or did the nogistune possess her earlier than I thought? Is it possible Kate was her biological mother and her biological father is/was supernatural? Someone pointed out, without things like mountain ash in play, the Argent adults seem to all turn rather than die. Could her own supernatural side be manifesting?

I really hope, for the sake of her awesome character development, the possession didn’t happen until 3B.

After everyone else leaves, Morrell and Allison both dance around what happened at the bank, and Allison is given lunchtime detention.

In science, Harris is lecturing. Scott tries to plead with Isaac to give him some time to figure things out before Isaac makes a move, and Isaac isn’t ignoring him so much as he’s supernaturally attuned elsewhere.

Danny answers a question, and Isaac asks for permission to go to the bathroom. Scott tries to follow, but Harris refuses to let him go.

In the hallway, much to the confusion of Isaac, Aiden is beating up Ethan, and I know this due to how Danny will soon react.

Then, Aiden quickly leaves when Harris and the others come out, and Danny comforts Ethan.

It’s been pointed out Isaac has no blood or bruising anywhere on his body, but this doesn’t bother me.

One, I don’t know how observant the average teenager is, but personally, I wouldn’t expect the average teenager to immediately realise this, nor would I expect Isaac to immediately leap to his own defence using such logic. Two, Harris likely has some idea of what’s actually going on, but he’s using his jerkiness to guide the teenagers.

Back in the loft, Derek begs for Cora to be let out of her chokehold, and Deucalion motions for Ennis to do so. Cora immediately starts to run to Derek, but he shakes his head. “No.”

She stops.

Deucalion makes it clear he’s soon going to babble out his evil master plan.

Back at school, Scott tells Isaac to do the detention without letting the twins goad him into making things worse for him.

Isaac points out Lydia and Aiden, and Scott uses his werewolf hearing. Aiden asks to see Lydia after school, and Lydia is non-committal.

Smiling, Isaac points out the twin just got under Scott’s skin.

Posey’s acting confirms this, but I’m not sure why this would get under Scott’s skin. He still doesn’t like or particularly care for Lydia at this point, and for all he might have some human decency and worry about her safety, there’s no indication he thinks she’s in any danger.

Elsewhere, Stiles is spying on his dad, Deputy Graeme, and Ashley.

Putting Ashley outside, Deputy Graeme gently stresses she’s to stay put. Then, she leaves, and popping over, Stiles acknowledges how deeply inappropriate the question he’s about to ask is, apologises, and asks if Kyle was a virgin.

Stiles doesn’t deserve the slap, but I can definitely put myself in Ashely’s headspace. Her boyfriend is brutally murdered, she sees his corpse, and then, a classmate of hers, who has a reputation for stirring up trouble, asks about her and said boyfriend’s sex life.

Reappearing, Deputy Graeme leads her away, but as they’re leaving, she does answer Stiles’s question: No, Kyle wasn’t.

Then, coming out, Sheriff S yells at him. It’s established the FBI is in town. He asks what exactly Stiles is doing, and Stiles answers, “Trying to find a pattern.”

Back in the loft, Deucalion insists Derek should kill his pack. He mentions one of them is already in trouble.

Over to school, Harris is hosting lunchtime detention, and it seems they have to forgo lunch to do assigned tasks.

In America, not only could parents sue, many would. Lunchtime detention doesn’t mean kids aren’t allowed to eat. It means they’re separated from the general student body and have to eat in a designated room with a teacher watching over them. Sometimes, they aren’t allowed to talk. Denying kids food during a designated meal-times, however, is a huge no-no, and more than just potentially sue, some parents would show up literally screaming.

Harris assigns Isaac and Allison to clean out a janitor’s closet. Rather politely and discreetly, Isaac asks if he could have a different partner, and understanding why, Allison sits quietly.

Interestingly, before Isaac asks Harris, he turns to look at Allison, and Allison drops her pen. There’s a possibility he interpreted this gesture as either fear of him or simply a desire not to work with him. Maybe, some part of him wanted to talk to her about this, but he’d rather it go unsaid than have to be in a small room with someone who fears and/or despises him.

Harris denies Isaac’s request.

At Kyle’s locker, a shrine has been set up. Stiles is looking at it, and Boyd puts a card having to do with JROTC on it. Stiles stops him, and Boyd establishes he still dislikes Stiles and is now even more isolated than ever due to his only true friend being dead.

In the janitor’s closet, Allison notices Isaac’s uneasiness, and he explains he’s not a fan of small spaces.

Yeah, and plus, someone who kidnapped his friends is in the small space with him.

Allison asks if she can ask a question, and he asks if she has to. Acknowledging she doesn’t, she declares she will anyways.

She asks if he told anyone about her solo hunter act. He asks if he should have, and she replies it’d make her happy if he didn’t. He points out her being happy isn’t high on his list of priorities due to her stabbing him multiple times with knives.

At this, she corrects she stabbed him multiple times with Chinese ring daggers, not knives. “But sorry.”

Smiling, he asks, “Was that an apology?”

“Would you accept an apology?”

Before he can answer, the door’s slammed closed, and he realises something’s pressed against it. As he starts having flashbacks to the freezer, she tries her best to calm him. Eventually, however, he attacks her.

Appearing, Scott drags him out. He uses his wolf dominance to draw Isaac out. Then, he looks at the scratches on Allison’s arm, and Isaac immediately apologises, “I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to that. I’m so sorry.”

Repeatedly insisting she’s fine, she points out it wasn’t Isaac’s fault. Scott acknowledges this.

Isaac demands, “So, are we going to do something?”

Unfortunately, what they’re about to do is stupid, and I’m really hoping Scott made it all up to try add some levity to the dark story he’s telling Alec. Either Chris doesn’t know what really happened, or he doesn’t see any harm in Scott making up such a thing.

Elsewhere, Lydia and Stiles are talking, and it’s revealed to her that Ethan and Aiden are the alpha twins. In a neat bit of acting by O’Brien and Roden, it’s made clear he expected her to know this, only, she didn’t and is now hiding the fact she’s having an internal freak-out.

Stiles wants her to get rid of Prada on the basis Kyle had a small dog, too, and she rightfully points out one victim having a small dog isn’t a good reason to automatically assume all owners of small dogs are in danger.

Getting emotional on the subject of death, he refers to “withering”.

Suggesting this could be a purely human thing, she suggests he let his sheriff dad handle things.

Outside, Allison is picking the lock on one of the twin’s bike chains. Isaac hops on, and she gives him instructions on how to handle it. There’s a brief moment of ship-tease where they’re physically close.

Taking a picture, she sends it to Scott.

Scott goes into Jennifer’s class, and she doesn’t notice him, despite it being established he has her class in the morning and this class is explicitly labelled as the last one of the day. Sitting down, he shows the twins motorcycle stuff. Again, no one notices.

They hear a motorcycle in the hallway, though, it’s not clear if everyone is hearing it or just the werewolves.

Aiden runs out, and doing a flip, Isaac lands across the hallway. Coming out, Jennifer says Aiden will be getting a suspension.

I’m calling this didn’t happen.

This was the trio’s big plan? The twins hurt both Allison and Isaac, from several characters’ POV, they may or may not be a part of the sacrifices, and aside from Braeden, Isaac hates them for what was done to Boyd and Erica. Their response to such a serious threat is to get _one_ of them suspended. Because, it’s not as if one twin isn’t dangerous on his own. Moreover, do they really, stupidly think a puny little edict handed down by humans would stop either of them from showing up at school if they wanted to be there for some reason?

Scott is cleverer than this. Allison often has more common sense than this. Isaac’s extremely personal reasons for wanting to _kill_ them isn’t going to be sated by doing this. Even with Jennifer being a legitimately horrible teacher, she wouldn’t fall for something like this, and if everything else fit, I could buy she knows who the twins are and just recklessly seized an opportunity to go after one of them when given the chance, but nothing fits.

At the clinic, Stiles has shown up. He asks Deaton for help.

Back at the loft, Deucalion explains that when an alpha kills a beta, they gain the beta’s strength and talents. Then, he kneels down to feel Derek’s face. “You’re right, Kali; he looks like his mother.”

Despite how widespread this trope is, I’ve read blind people can’t/don’t recognise people by feeling their face.

Derek calls Deucalion a fanatic, and Gideon Emery really enjoys some ham-and-extra-cheese with Deucalion’s speech about being a demon wolf.

Then, the alpha pack retreats.

Later, Lydia is drawing. Complimenting her, Danny suggests she should be in art class rather than the band room, and looking up, she realises where she is.

Everyone else leaves due to it being fifteen minutes without the teacher showing up. There’s general creepiness as Lydia plays with what I’m assuming is a radio. It might be a recorder.

Back at Deaton’s, Stiles realises Deaton knows more than he’s letting on, and Deaton hints at having a regrettable past. Taking this in, Stiles decides not to pursue it right now. Deaton says the person doing the sacrifices isn’t a Druid but is copycatting certain Druid practises.

Stiles gets a call from Lydia. Showing he’s truly starting to get over her, he does what he never would have done in the past and tells her he can’t talk now.

However, looking at blood on the piano, she declares the band teacher has been kidnapped.

In the music room, Deaton has Lydia record the music.

Stiles finds a picture of the music teacher wearing a soldier’s uniform. He points out Kyle was in JROTC. They get worried about Boyd, but then, Lydia says there’s another person who’s involved with the military.

The scene switches to Harris. He has a plague on his desk reading, ‘A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.’ He hears the creepy whisperings.

Elsewhere, Isaac and Scott are talking about the alpha twins. Said twins show up and do their melding. Isaac wants to take them, but doing good, Scott makes it clear, nope, they’ll be retreating.

Then, Deucalion shows up. The twins unmerge, and he cuts them both on the cheek before leading them away. Scott exposits to Isaac about him being the head of the alpha pack.

In Harris’s classroom, Deaton and the brainy duo discover Harris spelled out Darach via the grades on student’s papers. Deaton says this means Dark Oak.

Later at night, it’s raining. Inside the loft, Cora is hiding, and Derek is trying to throw a confused, hurt Isaac out. He claims there’s not enough room with Cora now in the picture.

At first, Isaac doesn’t believe it. Then, when it starts to sink in, he asks, “Did I do something wrong, Derek?”

Derek cares deeply about Isaac, Boyd, and Erica. He always has. Unfortunately, however, he often doesn’t show it, and when he does, it’s usually in the wrong way.

He’s doing this to protect Isaac from the alphas, but this doesn’t make it right. He should talk to Isaac, and with Isaac already so far in, he should respect it if Isaac’s choice is to say.

Instead, just as Coach Lahey did, Derek throws a glass at Isaac.

Isaac shields himself, and when he emerges, he’s scared, hurt, and most of all, angry. The look on his face shows he’s considering attacking.

However, whether it’s practicality, fear, love, or a combination, all he does is quietly leave.

At Scott’s house, there’s a knock on his bedroom door, and a rain-soaked Isaac comes in. “Uh, I was wondering if, uh, I could ask you a favour.”

Worse than the personal betrayal, Derek drove Isaac further under Scott and, by extension, Deaton’s sway. It’s possible Scott has/will come to genuinely care for Isaac, but he’s not the good guy Isaac thinks he is. He’s not a hero.

Thanks to Derek, Isaac has nowhere else to go. He doesn’t trust or like Peter. He cares for Boyd, but he and Boyd were never close. He doesn’t want to go into the human foster care system.

Manipulative Scott with his lasting grudge towards Derek just won a victory against Derek, and he didn’t even have to really try. Derek literally gave it to him.

Elsewhere, outside, it’s still raining, and Harris is tied to a tree. He pleads that he helped the person doing this. “You still need me!”

Behind the tree, gloved hands pull the wire around his neck, and his head falls forward.

Kate, Jennifer, Morrell, Deaton, Peter, or a hunter? Probably not clawed, werewolf Peter. The first two are the most likely.

Or did Harris never come back after season 2, and Scott added this for drama?

Fin.


End file.
